Nauseous or nauseated - and does it matter?

Readers of my blog will know that I'm a logophile - I love words. I'm also passionate about grammar, punctuation and syntax.  Many people glaze over at this point, but I'm certainly not alone, as evidenced by the numerous grammar debates, jokes and memes cropping up all over the internet. (If you've never watched one of the Jack's Films Your Grammar Sucks videos, you are missing out!)

What I'm not yet sure about is how much of a purist I am. While I, like many others, nearly wept at the announcement that the Oxford Dictionary was adding to the definition of "literally" to allow it to also mean "Used for emphasis while not being literally true", I do accept that common usage changes over time, and sticking rigidly to archaic conventions is unnecessary. In saying that, the day that "would of" or "yous" gets added into common usage is the day I stop speaking English.

Working at a University I am particularly careful about my grammar, even in emails and informal documents, and can spend hours (ok, maybe minutes) deciding whether to use "forums" or "fora" as the plural.  There are also all kinds of debates about this on internet. Even so, there are times I come across something I haven't previously heard of and then it gives me pause - if I have been using a word incorrectly for 30-odd years, and most other people use it incorrectly without obfuscating their meaning, is correct use of the word necessary?

A Short History of my Vagina

Time! It is not currently my friend.  Working full-time with a 45 minute commute, looking after a five year old, trying to do my masters, writing for the student magazine, editing my ex-husband's book and carrying on a new and wonderful LDR all suck up the majority of my time.  But I will be back in gear soon!

In the meantime, please feel free to check out my latest published work!  It's called "A Short History of my Vagina".  Go on, you know you want to...

http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/mayhem/issue1/OnyxLily-AShortHistoryofmyVagina.shtml